Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.bugs.sys5
Subject: Re: small bug in who(1) of SVR3
Message-ID: <5235@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 14 Jan 91 19:31:18 GMT
References: <14818@smoke.brl.mil> <18896@rpp386.cactus.org> <1991Jan13.004843.18650@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 19

>There seems to be a pervasive delusion that the only two ways things can
>be done are (a) add every conceivable option to the C program or (b) force
>the user to type long sequences using pipes.  The correct approach, when
>such functionality is often used, is to package it up in a system-supplied
>shell file.

I suspect a lot of the reason why people think only in terms of those
options is that the "system-supplied shell file" is often *not* supplied
by the system.  This isn't an argument against the *principle* of not
shoveling options into every command; however, it *is* an argument
against one of the mindset of the vendors of the systems (hardware or
software vendors, and probably any organization that puts out a version
of UNIX is guilty of this - including your favorite one, for most values
of "you").

I don't know if the problem can be fixed by better education, or if the
notion of packaging such functionality into a shell file isn't likely to
be picked up by most vendors, for whatever reason - which might well be
an argument against the idea in *practice*.